shamrock2lilly wrote:As for the second statement... O_O ... I like the idea of fixing the lines and yes there needs to be a system. However placing tape on the floor of a publicly used corporate landmark does not sound like it will go over well. I certainly do not want to be the one to ask the hotel for permission... they would not be pleased.

I thought I read in another more staffly thread that tape permission was granted. But I can't find it now so I may have been delusional. Ohayocon uses colored masking/painters tape all the time. It comes right off with no more wear and tear really than the foot traffic we bring to the carpets. The number of stanchions the hotel has may be an issue, and this would free them up (and we won't have to deal with them possibly falling over constantly either.) I've seen tape used at other places to indicate where things should be set up (like dealer booths) as well as holding down cords. I don't see why it should be much different. If they say no, that's the end of it. *is a big believer in "asking couldn't hurt" *

And it's haaaaaaaaaaard to keep people from lining up early sometimes, especially when they have nothing better to do. *flashing back to Ohayocon's Sunday back to back autograph sessions* Line chaos~ ;_; One into another into another and people still wouldn't hang out on the other side of the hall in a non-official line, like vultures. Usually polite vultures, but circling vultures none the less. Thankfully I had lots of candy in my goblet of delicious candy DOOM to share. =D Some would wander off for about 15 minutes, but would still come back with more than half an hour til the session they wanted started, because they didn't want to be behnd all the OTHER people milling around for the same thing. x.x It wouldn't have been so bad if there was just more hallway to line up IN, but I could barely keep one line for the very next session in that hall, let alone 2 others. Totally the Clump scenario just mentioned.

Got Heartless?*looks up at signature*...*cracks up*Have I really not changed that since 2006?? XD

There is this one incident that really irked me. My friends and I wanted to go to the Music Video Contest Awards Ceremony. So we mosey on over to main events and notice a giant line. We doubt this is for the Award Ceremony so we go to the back of the line and see a staffer of some sort. He asks us if we are getting in line for Vic. We say no and that we want to go to the Music Video Contest Awards Ceremony that should be happening right now. He tells us to wait. So he leaves and we see him walk by after about 5 minutes. He ignores us and we have to stop him to get his attention. He asks us, again, if we are in line for Vic. We tell him, again, that we want to get into the Music Video Contest Awards Ceremony, that is happening in the main events right now. He then tells us that he talked to some people and checked the main events hall. He said that there was no body in the main events room and that there was nothing scheduled at this time to be in the event hall. He then told us to go to the scheduling department and ask them about what should be going on. So, we then completely ignored him and walked into main events. Lo and Be"hold the Music Video Contest Awards Ceremony was about to start. So we then went and got some seats and enjoyed the award ceremony.

The point is that this person, after we told him what we were trying to do, proceeded to say he would do something to find out if we could go in or not, then he actually did nothing about it. Had he gone into main events and asked anyone in the room "whats going on here" he would've gotten an answer of "yes." Then the next logical question is "can we let people in for this event" to which the answer would've been yes. So, not only was he lazy, he then ignored coming back to tell us anything, and lied to us telling us he actually performed some sort of work. He then basically told us we were a bunch of buffoons for even thinking there was any kind of event going on right now besides the line to get into Vic's panel.

Not knowing exactly whats going on at any given moment I understand. Saying your going to find out something, not doing it, then lying about doing it, then insulting attendees, not that's unacceptable.

The panels were not professionally run, and I felt like whoever was running them didnt have enough time to prepare. Even for the team four star 18+ one that video kept buffering.. wtf was that about? No one knows to push play on a video and then pause right away and let it load? I went to the webcomics one too for like.. 10..15minutes, could barely understand the guy talking (who even had a microphone... 0_o) and the girl kept interrupting him which was pretty funny... uhm.. I was really looking forward to the panel, but was disappointed.. especially the fact that the one guy in the back seemed to know more of what he was talking about rather than the guy running the panel... Just my two cents really...

And yeah, wtf was up with the elevators.. especially the weird **** people who were there for regular stuff i guess or w/e and were trying to force themselves on when there were already what.. 20...30 people on the elevator to begin with. I swear it got so bad I actually witnessed an older gentlemen yelling at this kid dressed as Link as the doors closed b/c they were too big to get in... There should really be more elevators and less stairs at the convention... The one army guy was a jerk too, b/c I didnt even know elevator was going down.. went to 1st floor and he told us all to get off.. since when are they the adults and us being kids anyways? I don't appreciate being treated like that. I'm sure he left his post after 30 minutes to get drunk anyways... >.<

The problem during the T4S panel wasn't buffering. They were playing it off of the original AVI/MPEG file. Whatever technical glitch it was could not have been avoided.

Also, for the most part, the people who run panels are voulanteers. They are in no way obliged to be proffessional. If you feel you could do a better job, why not apply for one? Panel programming is by the fans and for the fans.

The only problem is that there did not seem to enough microphones for certain rooms, but given the set-ups I saw (especially with the ballroom sized AMV screenings. That was pretty spectacular) they blew my expectations pretty much out the water.

ATICE wrote:The panels were not professionally run, and I felt like whoever was running them didnt have enough time to prepare. Even for the team four star 18+ one that video kept buffering.. wtf was that about? No one knows to push play on a video and then pause right away and let it load? I went to the webcomics one too for like.. 10..15minutes, could barely understand the guy talking (who even had a microphone... 0_o) and the girl kept interrupting him which was pretty funny... uhm.. I was really looking forward to the panel, but was disappointed.. especially the fact that the one guy in the back seemed to know more of what he was talking about rather than the guy running the panel... Just my two cents really...

Please be specific about which panels, as some panels that I attended were near flawless (Para Para panel, only problem was space which wasn't their fault). There is a panel feedback form now so you can get your thoughts directly to the con staff.http://www.youmacon.com/panel_feedback.php(Link is also on the front page of the website.)

I'll repeat that panels are fan run for the most part. Any feedback, good or and not so good, is helpful. (Please don't blame panelists for things that weren't their fault, but room space issues do help us.)

Got Heartless?*looks up at signature*...*cracks up*Have I really not changed that since 2006?? XD

I would suggest that you submit feedback via the form linked above regarding the specific panel(s) about which you are concerned. Keep in mind that Youmacon does not actually run most of the panel programming. It's run by fans who submit applications and then are given Youmacon's OK. If no one gives us feedback about a panel that they didn't think ran well, and the panelist(s) apply again next year to run the same panel, then there's a good chance that we'd accept them again since we have no reason to do otherwise. Granted, one complaint doesn't necessarily mean a panel will not be allowed another chance, but if no one says anything either way, then by default we'll give them the benefit of the doubt.

As a panelist my self, I too have a complaint about the size of the panel rooms. I had requested in the years past that fandoms like Hetalia; was going to have a large crowd that would attend my fan panel. This even happened last year and were completely booked as far as seats were concerned. We had people standing in the back, along the walls, sitting in the isles and the same thing happened this year; which we were declared a fire hazard. We were faced with two choices: to stay in a cramped room and kick attendees out during the middle of our panel or to move during the middle of our panel. I had repeatedly requested to be in a large event room each year this panel was presented; yet I was declined that offer. I'm not sure how many people ended up moving to the larger room; but I can tell you that next year it will only gain a bigger audience and will only continue to grow. Hetalia is a huge fandom. Fans are dedicated to this fandom. Because we had to move during our panel this year, this had cut out alot of our panel time and time to spent with Todd Haberkorn. I felt bad for him making him move to another room, since moving to another room on a different level isn't as easy as it sounds in the Ren Cen. I felt rushed and the fans were a bit upset to the fact that Todd couldn't stay longer because he had to run to another panel.

But we also had an issue with the Pokemon panel. Even though there were a lot of other events were going on; I did not expect to have people sitting on the floors or against the walls for this panel. I, too, think that Pokemon needs a much larger room then it has in the past. It's an on-going, never ending popular fandom. And it deserves to have a panel room big enough in order to fit as many fans as it could. We tried to fit in as much as information as we could with the new series Black and White coming out in spring; and I can guarantee with a 5th new generation, the fandom will grow even more next year.

As far as my other panels went, the room size was perfect for my Baccano/Durarara on Thursday night but because alot of people told me later in the weekend that they couldn't make it to the panel since they couldn't be there until Friday; I'm requesting next year that it will be on Friday or Saturday. Durarara is going to get big. It deserves a shot to be on the Friday or Saturday programming schedule. I wish we could of fit it on the schedule for Friday or Saturday this year, but I have a feeling this will become a poplar fan panel. The Tales of panel room was the perfect size for a Sunday morning panel. It was small enough where we could see and talk to everyone and it was big enough for as many wanted to come in. I always enjoy the Tales of panel because I get to have some serious discussions with fellow Tales of fans that I normally do not be able to do because we're such a small, almost an obscure fandom.

I haven't read all 32 pages of this thread but for anyone complaining about the elevator line ups, ask yourself this: did anyone in my room sleep on the floor? If you answered yes, then you really have no right to complain. You are the cause of the problem.

Architects and engineers don't arbitrarily put in 12 elevators into a hotel. It is based on full occupancy and an acceptable wait time, factoring in peak traffic periods. Full occupancy means 2 people in a queen/king size bed, 1-2 in a double. When you stuff 4+ people in a room meant for 1-2 or stuff 6+ people in a room meant for 2-4, what do you expect to happen? There was a thread from last year's Youma that asked 'how many people were in your room?' The results:

1-2: 18%3-4: 22%5-6: 34% !7-9: 16% !!!10+: 10% !!!!!

Until the con and the hotel get serious about preventing overstuffed rooms, this will happen next year and every year. Personally I'd love to see security go around at night counting people through the walls with a heat-detecting device. Any room over the limit would have everyone's butts tossed out into beautiful downtown Detroit. Wishful thinking.

gargoyle wrote:I haven't read all 32 pages of this thread but for anyone complaining about the elevator line ups, ask yourself this: did anyone in my room sleep on the floor? If you answered yes, then you really have no right to complain. You are the cause of the problem.

Architects and engineers don't arbitrarily put in 12 elevators into a hotel. It is based on full occupancy and an acceptable wait time, factoring in peak traffic periods. Full occupancy means 2 people in a queen/king size bed, 1-2 in a double. When you stuff 4+ people in a room meant for 1-2 or stuff 6+ people in a room meant for 2-4, what do you expect to happen? There was a thread from last year's Youma that asked 'how many people were in your room?' The results:

1-2: 18%3-4: 22%5-6: 34% !7-9: 16% !!!10+: 10% !!!!!

Until the con and the hotel get serious about preventing overstuffed rooms, this will happen next year and every year. Personally I'd love to see security go around at night counting people through the walls with a heat-detecting device. Any room over the limit would have everyone's butts tossed out into beautiful downtown Detroit. Wishful thinking.

I agree about the too many people thing, When i was asking to room with people, I had at least three people saying that they needed more roommates and they already had 6-8 people in the room. I mean, we had four people in a double bed room so that was good, and one slept on the floor because I guess he didnt want to share a bed, but we were still at room capacity.

Two scary looking dudes in a pickup: "Hey can you give us a push?"Me: ~looks at the pickup~ ~looks down at myself, Ms. I'm-five-foot-four-on-a-good-day~ ~looks back up at the pickup~ "..." ~keeps walking pretending I didnt hear them~

Youmacon was a blast this year! It was truly a fun and exciting time, and I definately look foward to whats to come next year. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------There were TONS of awesome cosplayers and people to chat with and joke around with. I really felt like I could be myself while I was there, and was never made fun of or looked at weird. I was able to be happy, outgoing, sort of stupid, it was great.-I met a TON of cool people in the lines for panels and autograph sessions. (THE MIGHTY SEALAND BIDS A FINE HEARTY HELLO TO ALL PEOPLE WHO WAITED IN LINE WITH ME FOR THE VIC MOGNOGNA AUTOGRAPH SESSION. WE GOT CUT OFF BUT WHO CARES?) Yeah.-The Artists Alley and Dealers room was pretty fun as well! Wide varieties of merchendise and some neat odds and ends to look at or admire.-The panels I attended were fun and engaging as well. Discussions within them can get pretty intense and some pretty neat debates ensue. I also enjoyed the interactive aspects of some panels, like Raffles (Zombie Survival Panel) and Free Playing of Touhou (Touhou Panel.) ...Too bad I really failed at it. ^^; But it was still enjoyable nonetheless.-We had some GREAT guests this year! I really enjoyed being able to shake hands with Todd Haberkorn, and I thought it was pretty sweet to meet Marianne Miller and Little Kuriboh. Thank you so much for coming out this year!-THE HOTEL HAD A FOOD COURT. Nuff' said.----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Now that I'm through with the Pros, now for a few of the YoumaCONS...-NO BREATHING SPACE. Lines were insanely long and there was almost NO real free space to roam. The Dealers Room and the Artist's Alley were very hard to maneuver through, especially if someone were to have a large or intricate cosplay. And C'mon. THREE HOURS of waiting to get registered!? (luckily I was a pre-reggie) Perhaps it would've been a good idea to have more Sign-in booths open so maybe we could get at least 2/3 more people registered at a time.-LINES. Corrolating to the Reg. line, everything else had a LONG. LONG. LINE. D: Bad. Me and a group of newly met friends got cut off after an hour of waiting for the Vic Mignogna signing after his panel. But that could be excusable. One man can only sign so much merchandise.-The Elevators of DOOOMMMMMMMM. I heard that on the last day, people were stranded on the higher floors of the hotel for 2 HOURS trying to get down to check out. D: Poor people.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

gargoyle wrote:I haven't read all 32 pages of this thread but for anyone complaining about the elevator line ups, ask yourself this: did anyone in my room sleep on the floor? If you answered yes, then you really have no right to complain. You are the cause of the problem.

Architects and engineers don't arbitrarily put in 12 elevators into a hotel. It is based on full occupancy and an acceptable wait time, factoring in peak traffic periods. Full occupancy means 2 people in a queen/king size bed, 1-2 in a double. When you stuff 4+ people in a room meant for 1-2 or stuff 6+ people in a room meant for 2-4, what do you expect to happen? There was a thread from last year's Youma that asked 'how many people were in your room?' The results:

1-2: 18%3-4: 22%5-6: 34% !7-9: 16% !!!10+: 10% !!!!!

Until the con and the hotel get serious about preventing overstuffed rooms, this will happen next year and every year. Personally I'd love to see security go around at night counting people through the walls with a heat-detecting device. Any room over the limit would have everyone's butts tossed out into beautiful downtown Detroit. Wishful thinking.

We were only over the 4 person limit for one night. And that was because a couple of people who we knew were in a room where the person who reserved it wouldn't be there until friday at 4PM, but they had arrived at 3PM on Thrusday. That was alright by me. They chipped in $10 a piece for the night, but they were gone in the morning. Heck one of the people in our room was Staff! (If anybody was asked to do something by Master Roshi/Jacki Chung, that was him)

While I will agree, overcrowding is an issue, but for people to go around check rooms like that (as you are suggesting, with a heat device), is actually against the law, as it is an invasion of privacy. I don't think people who go to a hotel would exactly appreciate it either, seeing as how 90% of thermal devices made today record automatically. That would lead to not only lawsuits, but also to the end of the con.

"Look Mr. Bubbles. It's an angel. I can see light coming from his belly. Oh wait. He's still breathing. But don't worry. He;ll be an angel soon."

gargoyle wrote:I haven't read all 32 pages of this thread but for anyone complaining about the elevator line ups, ask yourself this: did anyone in my room sleep on the floor? If you answered yes, then you really have no right to complain. You are the cause of the problem.

Architects and engineers don't arbitrarily put in 12 elevators into a hotel. It is based on full occupancy and an acceptable wait time, factoring in peak traffic periods. Full occupancy means 2 people in a queen/king size bed, 1-2 in a double. When you stuff 4+ people in a room meant for 1-2 or stuff 6+ people in a room meant for 2-4, what do you expect to happen? There was a thread from last year's Youma that asked 'how many people were in your room?' The results:

1-2: 18%3-4: 22%5-6: 34% !7-9: 16% !!!10+: 10% !!!!!

Until the con and the hotel get serious about preventing overstuffed rooms, this will happen next year and every year. Personally I'd love to see security go around at night counting people through the walls with a heat-detecting device. Any room over the limit would have everyone's butts tossed out into beautiful downtown Detroit. Wishful thinking.

We were only over the 4 person limit for one night. And that was because a couple of people who we knew were in a room where the person who reserved it wouldn't be there until friday at 4PM, but they had arrived at 3PM on Thrusday. That was alright by me. They chipped in $10 a piece for the night, but they were gone in the morning. Heck one of the people in our room was Staff! (If anybody was asked to do something by Master Roshi/Jacki Chung, that was him)

While I will agree, overcrowding is an issue, but for people to go around check rooms like that (as you are suggesting, with a heat device), is actually against the law, as it is an invasion of privacy. I don't think people who go to a hotel would exactly appreciate it either, seeing as how 90% of thermal devices made today record automatically. That would lead to not only lawsuits, but also to the end of the con.

not that im proposing that i think it is a good idea or should be implemented (i dont), but it is actually completely within the Hotel's rights to monitor the rooms in non-privacy invading ways (so, no cameras or sound recording) to make sure you aren't violating the contract with the hotel and to make sure you aren't putting them in danger of the fire marshal shutting them down.

Just sayin.

www.Deadstatedesign.com

You should go there and check us out. Maybe say hi on the forums. Maybe convince other cons you go to that they need us. =)

Kagthul wrote:not that im proposing that i think it is a good idea or should be implemented (i dont), but it is actually completely within the Hotel's rights to monitor the rooms in non-privacy invading ways (so, no cameras or sound recording) to make sure you aren't violating the contract with the hotel and to make sure you aren't putting them in danger of the fire marshal shutting them down.

Just sayin.

I will agree, there are ways that they can monitor it, but as I also stated, the "over crowding" was done after a few hours. Additionally, I now have a "black list" of people that I will never room with again.

"Look Mr. Bubbles. It's an angel. I can see light coming from his belly. Oh wait. He's still breathing. But don't worry. He;ll be an angel soon."

This was my first anime convention and I'm happy that my first could be Youmacon. :]I had a blast and I was happy that this year it was at the RenCen because it is so much closer to my house.Anyway, everything was okay. I didn't run into any rude staff or anything. The biggest problems I saw were that some places were moved and no one told con-goers, so we ended up going in every direction. Also, the way some lines were going were... -sigh- My friends and I were some of the first people in line to see Vic Mignogna so we sat up front. When it was time to get his autograph, the way the line wrapped around made the people in the front (us) in the back of the line. That really pissed me off because we were waiting forever and the line got cut. :/